Andalite Feathers!
by WargishBoromirFan
Summary: AU collection: of ex-Taxxon lawyers, the perils of ticker-tape parades, and other things that never happened to Ax, Tobias, Rachel, and company.
1. She Adjusts

A/N: This is a bit of a nostalgia thing for me. Before I'd heard of the Prime Directive, I knew Seerow's Law. Before I learned any K'duk, I knew how to spell several Andalite terms. Before I'd read Tolkien's appendices, I owned the companion guide to the TV show. Before I read any of the EU, I read the Chronicles. I owe my tastes in mood-whiplash-causing optimistic black humor, complex world- and character-building, and AU fanfiction to K.A.A.'s Animorphs. I certainly don't own the rights to the series that started me down the path that warped my young brain into the crazy thing it is today.

These one-shots, incidentally, don't follow from canon or necessarily fit in the same alternate universe(s) as one another. To start us out, the inevitable "Rachel lives" scenario, to be taken with as much romantic salt as you wish. As the Greek "xeno" translates as "strange" or "alien," Xena's nickname may be more apt that we give Marco credit for.

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><p><strong>She Adjusts<strong>

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><p>She's a hero.<p>

She's a coward.

She's a spy for her people.

She's a traitor to her species.

She's fostering connections between two worlds.

She's only doing it for herself.

She's mourning everyone she's lost.

She's running away from everyone she killed.

She's Captain Aximili's charity case.

She's blackmailing someone on the Homeworld.

She's sleeping with one of those four-eyed blue aliens.

She's sleeping with a bird.

She's too bloodthirsty and psychotic to sleep with anybody.

She's bringing peace.

She couldn't give up the war.

She's heard the rumors, and if any of them hurt her, if any of them are true, it's the last one that gets to Rachel, every time.

They'd won. Earth was free, and with so many of the higher level Vissers knocked out, it would be a short time before the Andalites mopped up what Yeerks that still dared to resist the oncoming tide on other worlds. They'd helped assure the freedom of the Hork-Bajir and Leerans, offered the Taxxons and Yeerk peace movement another way out. It should be over.

For Marco, it was over. Rachel had joined him, initially, at the rounds of fame and glory, making appearances at parties and television shows and grand public gatherings, even after most of the rest of the group had moved on and tried to go back to something approaching normal. The accolades were nice, Rachel had decided, as was the money, but she'd been an "Andalite bandit" for far too long to ever truly feel comfortable as her life was dissected beneath a spotlight. Besides, the whole charade struck her as rather pointless… hollow… too much like her.

For Cassie, it was over. Her best friend still crusaded, but it was for the sake of the environment. There were no bloody fights here, just words, just planning. At most, the blonde would get to go and dig around in the dirt for a few hours each day and maybe wrestle a couple pills down a skunk's throat at her best friend's side. Rachel admired that Cassie could put so much effort into her cause, but the blonde could never really see the results. That wasn't a part of the war she'd ever enjoyed.

For Tobias, it was over… mostly, though life certainly would never be what it once had been. He'd kept in contact with his mother and Ax, even contacted his paternal grandparents once he escaped media attention. He'd wanted a normal life, or as normal of one as a half-human hawk nothlit could find. Rachel still thought it sounded good, in theory, but in practice… It was the reporters. It was the researchers. It was where they were living. It was their families. It was school and work and other activities. It was bad timing. It was too many sacrifices, even if Tobias didn't think it would be that much of a sacrifice, at all, or at least said he didn't. It was to her. It was her. Tobias was all for grand romantic gestures, but for Rachel, there was always that "but," that fear, that excuse that kept her from opening herself as fully to them as she should. She'd fought such selfish urges during the war for so long that she couldn't convince herself that he was making the choice on his own anymore, not while she was there. She just wasn't as ready for normal life as she thought she was, and after several tries, he'd finally flown off into his sunset without her. It wasn't bitter between them, at least not anymore. The war had made them who they were, and if it pulled them apart, it had also pushed them close enough together to understand why.

For Aximili, that one was over, but another would soon take its place. He'd gone back to where he'd belonged, the Andalite military, and finally gotten to where he deserved. They had promoted him straight to War-Prince, and Ax had threatened to pick them all up personally in his new ship when he received command of the _Intrepid_ but two years later. The Homeworld was beginning to demilitarize, turning its concern to establishing relations with their demanding, technologically-backward but culinarily-gifted new allies, but there would always be a few pockets of rebel Yeeks, always something lurking at the edge of explored space. Marco had teasingly asked if Ax was going to end up being Spock or Picard, because their resident celebrity had claimed the role of Kirk as soon as he'd been let onto the bridge. Although Cassie laughed off the Uhura role as quickly as Rachel had that of Seven of Nine, a part of Rachel found the overall comparison fitting: Ax would ever stand on his final frontier, an eternal guardian and explorer who might yet find himself in another fight.

For Jake, well, Jake was her cousin. He'd been their leader, their Prince, and still was, even with Captain Ax-man and Xena: Warrior Princess. Cassie and Marco had tried to steady him. They'd done a better job than Tobias had with Rachel, in the latter's opinion. Jake had at least settled down enough that he could join the human military. (Rachel never could; she was too paranoid, too undisciplined.) He was the only one who had never dated outside their group, and although Rachel wished her best friend nothing but happiness, if things didn't work out with Ronnie, she was pretty sure her cousin would welcome Cassie back in a heartbeat. For what that was worth. He still kept the others at arm's length, afraid of how he would use them if they came too close. A part of Rachel had agreed with Marco as he had sarcastically wondered how Jake could subvert saving the whales and kittens and Taxxons to dark ends; the rest of her was already slapping together rough scenarios for how the caper would play out. She was sure Jake's - or even Marco's, for that matter, - ideas were already much more carefully plotted.

For Rachel… She tried to move on. She fought with media hounds instead of Yeerks and found them almost painfully easy to shake. She took up extreme sports and drove her car too fast; she spent far more than she should, though the latter didn't matter - Marco was savvy enough to insure that not only was he stinking rich, none of the rest of the survivors would need to worry about money, either. There was at least a short-term rush there - perhaps it wasn't flying, and it certainly wasn't fighting for one's life and freedom, but it wasn't flying, either. The air (and part of her heart) would always belong to Tobias. Swimming was good. She spent more time in dolphin morph than she was willing to admit. (And more time as a shark than she would admit even to herself. The dolphin was cheerful and happy, but the hammerhead was simple. Efficient.) Rachel was also more than willing to let Cassie drag her along on environmental quests and chase after lofty political goals, especially if it meant shopping for kickass business suits and letting Cassie plan the attack. Still…

They had been celebrating Ax's ship and playing tourist on the Homeworld when she had first witnessed what would become her latest fix, the next closest thing an old war junkie could find to the ended war. All five had earned stares, even Tobias in Andalite morph, since said morph bared more than uncanny family resemblance to the new captain. It wasn't anything they hadn't experienced at home, but that was about the end of the similarities. On earth, there were aliens, usually remaining in small clusters outside the larger human populations. Here, they were the aliens, and the only small cluster of their kind on the world.

Jake had been aloof and polite, although somewhat ill at ease with the warriors who saw Prince Jake, The Professor, President of Earth, their hero's hero, stepping onto the Homeworld from the distant legends of their own generation. Cassie and Tobias had made an effort into learning at least some of the local customs along their journey, fitting in about as well as Ax did in the old mall food court. Still, they were trying, and Rachel had to respect them for it, even if she followed Marco's example and said what she thought and went where she pleased first and apologized to Ax later. It wasn't like she'd joined in the first time she'd seen it.

Here it was easier, in some ways. Here, they expected a barbarian warrior princess who couldn't fit in with the rest of society to try to carve her own place. If Rachel was fascinated by the tail-fighting demonstrations rather than the _estreens_, no one expected her to understand the details behind the process of the morph or the specific tactics of the duel; they expected a fighter to be drawn to the fighting, not to the beauty. If she had more morphs under her belt than several professional _estreens_ combined, if she had been one of the first to be able to include non-biological elements in her morph, it was of no concern. If she had driven a Blade Ship but wrecked her first car, it was of no significance. All that mattered were the tails moving faster than the eye could see and her eyes, trying to follow anyway. Jake and Ax had to corral her away, but she made note of the place and came back, watching all the harder through sharp cat's eyes.

Jake and Marco and Cassie had afforded an earth year's stay for the long journey; even that was clearly too much for their tastes. They had careers waiting for them back on earth, causes, people. Doubtlessly there were some of the latter awaiting Rachel's return, as well, but the governments of Earth and the Homeworld alike had argued themselves voiceless and blue in the face about what to do with morph-capable humans, the American military had their hidden ace in Jake, the environmental groups their guiding light in Cassie, and the adoring fans could fixate on Marco as easily as Rachel. When Ax rotated out on the _Intrepid'_s maiden voyage, the rest saw him off. Tobias stayed the remaining months at his grandparents' scoop; the others caught an early ride back on a merchant vessel; Rachel found temporary housing in the city.

Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen and Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf had been icily distant but kind enough to their son's visitors, a poster couple for the unique Andalite mix of arrogance, optimism, honor, and curiosity. They had been in contact with Tobias, and if they were still surprised at his form, they were desperately clinging to any last trace of Elfangor, any history of their Aximili's hidden years that brought him home a war-prince with a weapon of a nickname and hundreds of new forms for weapons. Besides, if the battle for earth had silenced much of the quiet poet and hardened that gentle soul into a hunter, "Tobias-kala" was still so easy to love.

Rachel avoided the scoop, preferring the bustle of the city that had inevitably sprung up around the spaceport and its tail-fighting demonstrations. By the time Ax called her, she had acquired a female Andalite morph from a variety of sources. It had taken some trial and error to perfect; she'd focused primarily on the tail-blade, without sacrificing balance. Her joy in its effeciency could rival the dolphin morph's. "Haven't started any more interstellar wars without me, have you?" she asked him, offering the monitor her best defiant grin.

He laughed, and for all the hundreds of thousands of light-years between them, between their current locations and earth, for a moment, they're back at the barn, waiting for the others to catch up. {No, not yet. Please do not start one without me, either, Rachel. My mother is quite a formidable opponent.}

"No promises," she said, and punched the holographic tail blade, wishing she could actually throw a companionable arm about his shoulders and feel the knuckles he passed against her cheek. Even if he might feel a little dampness that she's been happy to hide, he could read the human body language that gave her such an advantage in the ring.

They didn't talk long. He couldn't give details about his mission and she hid her hobbies from him, not sure who else a captain might have to confide in. Afterwards, she morphed a kafit bird, rising on six rainbow wings into a blood-red sky.

She wondered when her enlistment into the academy would go through. Her mother and best friend would disapprove, and even her sisters and cousin would call her rash. But Warrior-Princess Rachel had a nice ring to it. For now, Aristh Xeria-Baransol-Rolchid would do, until they discovered the truth and learned to adjust.


	2. Your Bright Future, Part 1

A/N: It's a different universe from the one you're currently experiencing in which I own the rights to the series.

Ah, first the TV show came out, and it was camp. Then there was "Alternamorphs," and it was as if the ghost writers had heard the challenge to write something goofier than an Ax vs. V3 shoving match, searched the 'net for the most common Animorphs variation on the "tenth walker," and sold it for cash money. And I can respect 'em for that. Then, on the second-to-last choice point* of "Button A" of _The Next Passage_, (the one that cribs off the Iskroot vs. Howlers jazz,) somebody reminded them of the whole Mary Sue concept. So, like any Suethor, in order to prove the lucky survivor* totes isn't a Sue, they had it defer to Jake and co. after Cassie dies if it wants to live. And then get a ticker-tape parade with people cheering its name for making the right choice and bringing Cassie back. (Which isn't much of a choice, even in an in-universe context, since the David-replacement has never heard of Elfangor and was allowed only one. And now I'm looking for an Animorphs/Highlander crossover, people.) ;)

But anyway, this final scene raises so many potential plotholes that I may have to revisit the scenario more than once. Of course, since "Andalite Feathers" is an Andalite AU collection, I'm playing a little loose with the survivor's canon. Nothing broken, but hai, "non-interference." I went ahead with a female "you" whose name kept vaciliating between "Ziva" and "Polly" in my drafts... (One is a straight Animorphs #3 reference. Watch this space. The other you can get if you've ever turned on CBS.) Then I went with the namesake who hangs out with the superpower that can stop time and TALKS LIKE THIS.

*Like any Choose Your Own Adventure book, it railroads your choices like the DM of Bored of the Rings and inflicts gruesome death if you stray from that path.

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><p><strong>Your Bright Future, Part 1<strong>

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><p>"I love ticker tape parades!" One minute it had been six in the car, the next, there were seven. Not one of them was Erek, to judge from Jake's reaction. Rachel pulled the new arrival out of her cousin's grip long enough to envelope the short, dark form in a hug strong enough to surely break through any hologram, Tobias leaning over her shoulder to offer his own welcome. Marco's face lit up in an uncharacteristically hopeful smile, and even Ax's eyes brightened at the unexpected arrival.<p>

By now I should be used to sudden changes around the Ellimist, but a part of me had expected it to go as wrong as all the other recent upheavals in my life. Murphy's law, I guess. Or karma for my cowardice. Still, this felt… nice. This was the best decision I could make under the circumstances. At least it made the other Animorphs happy, and there was something to be said for a crowd cheering your names…

Cassie was grinning from ear to ear as Jake leaned in for another kiss, and then the world went dark and hot and wet for a breathtaking minute.

"Someone's been paying attention to his soap operas," Tobias teased over the more distant clamor of wolf whistles.

"Was that not proper conduct for a ticker tape parade ritual? Tick. Tick-er. Chew-all…" Ax seemed to linger on the words even longer than usual, as if allowing for certain brains to reboot. "You and Rachel kissed and Cassie and Prince Jake have done so twice, but Marco has not yet had an opportunity, either, so perhaps I should have refrained…"

"Keep her if you want her." Marco was quick to dismiss the incident with careless sarcasm. "I can do better." He'd turned his eyes out to the crowd, scanning the floats and marchers before and behind the car, as well.

A different sort of heat flamed in my face but fizzled out as soon as it reached my mouth, turning to shame upon my cheeks. After the last mission, what was there to say?

Rachel, on the other hand, could think of plenty, even as she offered the crowd a pageant-queen-perfect wave and the other half of the car a smirk. "Yeah, short stuff isn't at all embarrassed that the alien got a girlfriend before he did, just as long as he gets his adoring legion of fans. Enjoy your fifteen minutes, Marco," she told him with cheery false sweetness.

"Girlfriend?" Ax echoed her. "Guh? G-Girl? Friend?" That really sounded like more than playing around with his "mouth sounds." I began to see a reflection of my own embarrassment in his cheeks, making me blush all the harder and concentrate on my bare feet. I guess I was giving up on little things like boots as well as my parents, but it's the best I can do, right? They were still alive, if currently enslaved, and I could handle going barefoot.

Marco didn't turn from the crowds, even as his smirk turned colder. "Oh, trust me, I can go a whole lot longer than that. How about Ax-man and Bird-boy, here?"

"I have been in morph for approximately…" Ax trailed off. He might not get human customs and play with sounds when excited, but he'd always known just exactly how much time everyone had left in a morph. He seemed to enjoy annoying Marco with a deadpan announcement of how many of "your earth minutes" were left before the two-hour limit was up and someone ended up like Tobias, trapped in a strange body and unable to change. Tobias might have gotten a second chance, but I doubted that the Ellimist would give one to anyone else after the fuss he'd made over me.

"Ax?" Tobias asked, sounding rather hoarse. It might just be because he spent most of his time as a hawk or because Rachel had an arm locked protectively about his wiry shoulders, but those brown eyes were laser-pointers on the Andalite seated between us. Ax remained worryingly silent.

"Anybody know how they all know our names, here? Or what we're all doing in a parade car on the other side of the country when we're supposed to be casual acquaintances out in the public eye?" Marco continued relentlessly, waving and smiling. "And who's driving?"

"Not someone who hates trash cans as much as you do," his best friend joked grimly. "There's no help for it." Jake stood up and motioned for me to do the same. "Ax, Tobias, get down and demorph if you can. Susan, try to give them some cover." I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do. I was shorter than Ax even in his human form, and Andalites were not built for car seats. Still, Jake had asked me to help; I was going to help. Trying to ignore the roiling sensation in my stomach, I stood in the slow-moving car, waving wildly and grinning slightly more manically than Marco or Rachel. At least this way Ax could get down in the floorboard, sort of.

There were a few catcalls as Ax slipped off his seat and Tobias hunched down next to him, but I also heard murmurs and pointing. I'd been the new kid at enough schools to recognize what those meant. Usually, I'd just kept my head down; we never really stayed long enough in any one town for rumors to matter. But now, I'd had enough of staying quiet and protecting myself while others risked more than a reputation. This time, my parents couldn't move me anywhere. Well, if this crowd wanted a show, I'd give them a show.

I'd never morphed this before, so I really didn't know what to expect. The alien face? The bladed tail? The bulk of the larger body? We'd been fairly crowded with seven of us in the vehicle; even with Tobias shrinking down to hawk, it was really too small a space for someone to morph Andalite. Let alone two.

Someone swore behind me and I recognized Ax's thought-speak as he categorically denied that this was possible. Well, if I caused chaos, they could at least play the amazed bystanders pretty convincingly now. I felt a sharp pain to the back of my head before I completed the morph and the world went still.

OH, DEAR.

Not black, but once again, the Ellimist seemed to have frozen the universe, including me. I could turn my eyes a bit, but nothing else was moving. I SUPPOSE YOU ARE NOT AS READY FOR YOUR REWARD AS I THOUGHT YOU WERE.

_What?_ It wasn't quite thought-speak, but I knew he'd heard me.

LOOK AROUND YOU. They were few and far between, clinging to lampposts and trees rather than down in the press of humanity, but there were some Hork-Bajir in the crowd. Heck, I even saw a Taxxon or two, though the rest of the celebrators gave them a wide berth. And was that the Visser in a car up ahead of us? It couldn't be; the aura of menace that clung to him like a housefly to a bear had disappeared.

It was because we were stopped, wasn't it? It wasn't because Visser Three had changed. We were in the middle of a Yeerk rally, probably being driven to our doom, and we wouldn't have even noticed if it hadn't been for Marco. THIS IS YOUR BRIGHT FUTURE.

It made my heart ache all the more when I caught sight of them. Dad was standing at attention, saluting with a four-fingered hand. His other arm was around my mom, who was frozen in the middle of wild applause, as if her baby girl had actually saved the universe rather screwed it up and gotten us all handed to oversize garden slugs that fancied themselves brain puppeteers.

I turned my eyes away as fast as I could, wishing I could close them, but the Ellimist simply drew my gaze to others in the crowd. A small Hispanic woman blew kisses on the other side of the street from me, while a man with Marco's trademark careless smirk stood not far behind her. There was a couple with a son who could have practically been Jake's twin, a couple years down the road. His mom and dad were hugging him furiously, all three cheering us on. A blonde woman with a couple of young daughters in tow was smiling proudly up at our car and I swore I'd seen the same expression in Rachel's eyes when we were plotting something dangerous. Another man was standing in front of a local news camera, looking as if he belonged in the spotlight even if the interviewing reporter was holding the microphone out to the proud father, gesturing to our car as if it were an oncoming storm. A gaunter, less flashily dressed woman clung tightly to her dog's harness, ill at ease with the crowd, but a wistful, shy smile had frozen on her pale face as she caught sight of a hint of blue fur.

And then there were Cassie's parents, turning towards each other in the instant the Ellimist had stopped time, surprise in their features as her mom opened her mouth, but no sound came out. I couldn't hear if they hadn't expected their daughter or if this was a surprise to their Controllers or if maybe… possibly… we had won here.

Either way, it didn't matter. We couldn't stay. I might wish I could wake up from the nightmare, but the only thing I'd be waking up from was my happy ending. I wished I'd gotten a better look at my parents as I crumpled from the car and my mind faded into unchanging blackness as the world started up again.


	3. Your Bright Future, Part 2

**A/N: **More things I don't own here in Part Deux of the Alternamorphs spinoff. You really thought I'd do an Ax/OC pairing with no setup? I'm a cynical romantic, not a luster. Or at least that's all I'll admit to in public. ;)

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><p><strong>Your Bright Future, Part 2<strong>

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><p>I awoke on the grass, something hard and bony poking at my ribs. {Demorph.} Ugh, I hated trying to concentrate on a form straight from a dead sleep. I wasn't even sure I knew what I was supposed to look like when I was going more off of fear than consciousness. Well, I had five fingers, at least, I remembered, knuckling my eyes - of which there were only two simple ones, no housefly-style broken-funhouse-mirrors here, thanks - and wiping a bit of drool from my mouth. It might not be glamorous, but a mouth was good for a few things, at least. Like getting me into trouble with an Andalite…<p>

That had just been a dream, right? Jake, Marco, and the others had rescued me from the Yeerk attack and brought me to the barn and given me the power to morph and being a horse was so crazy that I'd passed out and dreamed about Iskroot and pacifist androids and killer Howlers and kissing Ax and seeing my parents in New York… Yeah, and maybe everything since logging on to the web had been a dream, too, while I was at it. My skin was supposed to be brown, not blue. It was cooler in the woods than the balmy New York spring, but it wasn't that cold. Better fix that.

{You have five of your minutes to explain where you acquired that form.} Ax was being a paragon of patience and restraint, to judge by that clipped tone and the tail-blade hovering less than a quarter of a foot from my neck.

"The Andalite?" I asked, drawing myself up to a fetal sitting position despite the unsubtle threat of his tail. Sleepiness and fear combined to render me stupid. "The Ellimist offered me three morphs." I knew I should have gone with a shark. I didn't have a good water morph yet, and Ax looked as if he'd rather I slept with the fishes, if I was going to be without gills, anyway. "I wanted to be able to hide and get away, but I wanted one thing that Visser Three and the Yeerks might be scared of, if only long enough for them to be able to see it wasn't you." If only long enough for Ax to send my borrowed head rolling. "Just once, I want them to be scared of me for a change. I want them to be powerless for once."

"You're not powerless, Susan." Cassie wrapped her arms around me from behind before I had the chance to look around. I'm only a little embarrassed to admit I jumped.

"Yeah, you're excellent at screwing things up," Marco pitched in with snide cheeriness.

"Marco, shut up." Jake put a hand to Ax's shoulder, not exactly calling him off, but not turning his serious gaze away from me in disgust, either. "You didn't know what you were getting into with that box. You didn't choose to sign up for this war. None of us did."

"Except Ax. And Xena would have signed up even if we'd had a real choice about this."

"Shut up, Marco." Rachel was taking this pretty quietly. And also angrily. If Ax was a sharp tail-blade tightly straight-jacketed by military training, Rachel was a mother bear with wounded offspring, waiting for the slightest scent of weakness from whatever had messed with her cub. And Tobias was a hawk, so I had no idea how the hell to read him.

Jake ignored the others' commentary. "You can't go back to what you had before. We can't risk you and what you know about us falling into enemy hands, but you don't have to fight. You're no good at stealth, and we don't have time to train you. It'd be best if you stayed in the woods with the free Hork-Bajir and kept out of the way." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "It… It sucks, it really does, but you'd be safe." And out of their way, where they wouldn't have to worry about babysitting the new kid, the coward who just freaked out and got Jake's girlfriend killed, nearly got them all killed…

{Hork-Bajir are pretty tough characters. They might not be intentionally built for fighting, but pound for pound, they're better battle morphs than Andalites,} Tobias observed in the lingering silence. {They've got more blades, Ax. They're good at climbing trees. Plus they blend in with the enemy,} he added with the telepathic hawk version of a shrug. {I wonder why you didn't go with the third one in the set if you just wanted to scare Visser Three.}

Nothing I could ever possibly acquire would ever scare Visser Three. Not really. "The Andalites are still free. All but Visser's host."

Cassie had loosened her hold on me, but she squeezed my shoulder. "Honestly, it would worry me a little to have to blindly choose either Hork-Bajir or Andalite. They're sentient creatures, and I don't like morphing someone without their permission. If the Ellimist gives you their form, you had no chance to talk to them about it, and there's no telling whose life you're borrowing when you morph." Part of me wished we could really borrow lives, with family and memories and a future ahead of us, not just be their brain-deficient twin, but that sounded too much like what the Yeerks did when I tried to put the longing to words. "I can understand why Ax would be upset about that happening to an Andalite. He asked us and we all asked the Hork-Bajir before morphing, so it would have been best if you could have done the same for him."

She glanced between me and Ax, deflating my protests before I could assemble much more than _it's not fair. _Nothing was.

"Well, what's done is done, so if you don't use the morph, there's no reason to worry about you having it, is there?" Cassie concluded optimistically, hoping to leave it at that.

"If you do, however, remember that we've fought worse than Andalites." Rachel wasn't as content to leave it on a peaceful note. Her knuckles crackled, and while I'd never be exactly sure who had knocked me from the car, she had been the closest one who wasn't trying to morph.

{Susan would not count as an Andalite even if she did complete the morph. She knows nothing about our people.} Ax pawed the dirt contemptously, then turned and left with a cold expression in the single stalk-eye he deigned to leave on me. Tobias launched himself from the barn rafters to follow after his friend. If he made excuses or apologies, he kept his thought-speak private.

Marco sighed, digging his hands into the pockets of his bike shorts. "Well, so much for Ax getting a girlfriend. Pity I didn't even get the chance to offer him any tips."

With Ax gone to work off some steam and Rachel hovering protectively in range of Cassie even as the victim of my stupidity tried to comfort me, Jake's demeanor softened back to that of high-school jock, joking around with his best friend. "I don't think he needs any help scaring women off."

"So I haven't found someone like Cassie yet." The shorter of the two just smiled cheekily. "You'd think having another Andalite around would convince him to take the tail-blade _out_ of his butt."

"Marco, be nice," Cassie cut him off warningly. I sagged lower against her supporting arm. Honestly, I think I was starting to get a little numb, now that the adrenaline that had yanked me from unconsciousness was starting to wear off. The back of my head ached, and it was spreading to the rest of my body.

"Yeah, I know she's a screw-up, but it's the best anyone can do for several hundred light-years. Hey, Sue, out of curiosity: is your morph a guy or girl?" Honestly, I had no idea. I just shrugged in response. "So that's why: you're confusing the poor boy." He clucked his tongue. "And here I thought you were good at distracting us."

"We've got better things to do than waste our time baiting her." Rachel was dismissive, but she was on the move and I was almost grateful to get swept up in her wake. At least it meant I still had some direction. "Even you, Marco."

"We'll take you to the valley." Jake started on his falcon morph, the steely outline of feathers tattooing and erupting from his skin. "Toby will help you settle in."

"I ought to talk with her," Cassie murmured absently. She gave me one last encouraging smile before starting her own morph, her wings as large as an angel's before she dropped back to the form she'd died in. Jake and Rachel were already birds, but both of them had to turn away. Cassie had noticed, but kept her tone light and reassuring rather than asking what she couldn't be sure she wanted to know. I don't know how much she remembered of our visit from the Ellimist. I'm not sure how much I want her to remember. {The Hork-Bajir aren't the galaxy's greatest thinkers, but they'll welcome another who's lost her home. I think you'll like them.} I was still a burden, but at least the Hork-Bajir didn't resent me… yet.

"Yeah, Rachel's right. I got some stuff to do. I'm gonna go check in with Erek, do some homework, maybe even catch up on sleep." Marco stayed human, waving us off. "Catch you later, Jake."

The Ellimist had said that I'd changed the timeline by joining up with them, but it affected far more than just me. I was glad that Marco was still trying to piece together the bigger picture, even if only for the selfish reason that it got him off my back.

"You don't all have to go with me." I held back from morphing for a minute. It was a different group of birds, a different destination, but it still seemed too close. Cassie was waiting for me.

{We don't. You two go on,} Rachel agreed. She sounded almost too eager to see her best friend and cousin off, leaving just me and her larger bald eagle in the air. {I can take care of this.}

{Rachel, you know I love you, but you're the worst diplomat. Ever,} Cassie teased her gently. She and Jake had taken up perches in the same tree, despite how incongruous his peregrine looked settled next to an osprey, an even larger eagle twitching restlessly in the braches above me. {Go get some rest; it's been a long day.}

I felt exposed as I dropped down to the size of a hawk beneath Rachel's golden glare. I wasn't that much smaller than her, but her talons looked huge. {Which is why we're going to do some girl-time as soon as possible; just let me straighten Susan out first. Meanwhile, if you've had a shorter day than I have, it certainly isn't making me or our fearless leader rest easy. You guys go catch up; I'm stealing her back once I've done these last little chores, Jake.}

I could watch individual feathers ruffle as Jake considered this. Somehow the hawk's super-vision struck me as more of a curse than an advantage right now. {Better let me handle this, Rachel.} The peregrine took off from the trees and I clumsily flapped my way off the ground. {I'll call if I need backup.} I didn't know whether to feel appreciated or insulted, but his tone made it clear that he wouldn't be needing it for me.

{I really ought to do some chores,} Cassie admitted, {but while we're already in bird morph, there's no harm in patrolling the skies for a while, is there?}

{Especially over the beach. You never know what the Yeerks will get up to when confronted with sand and sunshine,} Rachel agreed, launching herself off the tree and rapidly climbing over my head on a current of warm air. While the hawk's instincts allowed me to keep myself aloft, I was nowhere near as talented a flier as Marco, let alone Tobias's girlfriend in her larger eagle body.

{Just be careful,} Jake said, circling on a distant updraft of his own.

There was a hint of relieved laughter from Cassie. {You too. And Susan? Thanks for saving my life. I know you didn't have to choose me.}

{Hey, I owed you one.} I still owed them several. {You did the same for me.}

Jake was silent as we flew; stooping from his thermal deeper into the woodlands. I couldn't hold his pace, especially on a dive, but if I zoned out and let the inner hawk take over, I required less flapping than those knife-point dark wings. {So, the Hork-Bajir, eh?} I awkwardly tried to start a conversation. {You're letting me around a lot of your allies.}

{Believe me, if we didn't already owe the Chee too many favors as it is, you'd be scooping poop in the world's largest underground dog park,} Jake said. {I can't trust you yet, but I'm trying to give you a chance.}

I hesitated too long for the next wing-beat, dropping below him towards the tree-line. I spotted something moving far below us in the underbrush; my stomach grumbled in reminder of the bird's high metabolism. Ax, Tobias, and the Hork-Bajir all lived out in the woods, but all of them could find stuff to eat out there. I would probably be getting used to the berries, fish, and small rodent diet if I didn't want to get caught dumpster-diving at the edge of the park. So long, mall food. Even the MREs Dad occasionally brought home were a luxury beyond this new life. Dad and Mom were beyond this new life.

_Someday_, I promised myself. Someday, I'd get them back, and we could really go to New York.

First I'd have to convince the others that I could pull my own weight in this fight. First I'd have to convince myself that I could fight.

The Hork-Bajir still looked like Visser Three's bladed dinosaur minions, even the small (meaning only about five feet tall instead of the usual seven or eight) one that waved Jake and me into the valley as we passed through a wooded narrowing in the rocky hills. I could understand why Tobias thought that they would make excellent battle morphs, perhaps even better than an Andalite. But for all that these allies of the Animorphs secretly terrified me, they weren't the creature at the center of this nightmare.

Jake and the little Hork-Bajir, Toby, made introductions; I admit I didn't tune in as well as I should, but I swear the same big bruiser with the scar across the side of his cranium asked me my name four times, so I guess I wasn't the only one. Jake left to catch up on his rest, suggesting that I settle in and do the same. "We never know when the next attack will be, after all," he told me. It was at once sweet and terrifying of him to think that it would matter to me while I was in the valley for my own protection, for their protection. Then he'd remorphed and flown away.


End file.
